Widdows: What happened was Eurocom had made Bond titles for Activision and conversations were had between Activision and Eurocom about doing another Bond game and that led to the idea of how about bringing GoldenEye back but it was a very hypothetical conversation. We spoke to the people at MGM pictures and we of course had conversations with Nintendo and Nintendo got behind the idea of this new GoldenEye so that is really where is started.
To answer the question about how much it is like the original game, it is a new GoldenEye game. I think that is really important to approach this from a fresh perspective. Its been fifteen years since the film was released. Its been thirteen years since the game was released and theres a danger there that if you try to ape that you will create something that is derivative. This is a new experience. There are lots of things familiar from the GoldenEye property. Its the same narrative. Its going to be less Cold War focused. We recognize the cast of characters. Were re-conceiving those characters. So weve got Zukovsky, but hes not Robbie Coltrane (the actor who played him) anymore, hes a new Zukovsky re-imagined for a 2010 experience.
Weve got locations fans will recognize from GoldenEye. The dam, Severnaya, statue park, the jungle location, and yet theyve all got a twist and we worked really closely with some interesting contractors, like Robert Cowper, who's a set designer who worked on the Bourne films and Stardust, a really talented guy, who brings a unique architectural perspective to the locations so you know the final location had to be this huge statuesque location in the jungle. You know the array in GoldenEye, its now a solar collector so youve got all these solar panels that are arched towards this huge array that collects the sun's rays and turns it into energy and thats the focal point for the level.
So how much of the original game is in there? Its really a new GoldenEye experience for 2010 is the best way to describe it. Lots of nostalgia points touching back to the film, back to the original game.
GoldenEye 007 is set for release on November 2, 2010.
Staff Writer Jared Rosenberg contributed to this article.
So weve got Zukovsky, but hes not Robbie Coltrane
Activision is using every resource their license provides access to (the original movie content and current actors like Daniel Craig). They don't have any rights to the Rare game, so any resemblance must be (legally) due to shared ancestry with the film. I imagine a lot of the original game's developers are annoyed at the blatant aping of visual style and game design, but most of them no longer work at Rare, and there's nothing they can do unless Activision stupidly oversteps the line into copyright infringement, which would be fairly hard to prove with a licensed game such as this.
Has there ever been any evidence that Microsoft has any claims to the game? I can't think of any possible legal claims. Nintendo published the game and had the license to the franchise (and own the copyright). It's possible I could be wrong, but I can't think of any possible way MS would have any legal claims and I have never seen any evidence that they do.Nintendo transferred all Rare-related IP rights except for Donkey Kong to Microsoft in the sale. It's not so clear what the status of this particular license is, since it also involves another party who has already re-licensed to yet another party, but it appears Nintendo and Microsoft couldn't come to an agreement over the XBLA Goldeneye release, so obviously it is a sticky area. These types of licenses tend to be limited to release on a specific console.
That is to say that yes, there is a level based on a dam, but that's because there is a dam in the movie. The level itself has to be different in ways than the N64 game because Rare created that. If Rare had created a level in the game NOT based on the movie, Activision's GoldenEye could not rely on that scenario.
I would like to see Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, and Brosnan as unlockables though. Face editors are always welcome in games, if not legally possible.
I would like to see Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, and Brosnan as unlockables though. Face editors are always welcome in games, if not legally possible.
Maybe Activision will include the Face editor option (Motion Camera Compatible) that Rare was gonna use before the Columbine Incident back in the day.
